Born into an eccentric New England family, Katharine Hepburn was brought up to be free-thinking and unconventional. Her physician father did pioneering work against venereal disease, and her mother campaigned for women’s suffrage and birth control. Shattered by her brother’s apparent suicide in her teens, Hepburn remained aloof and withdrawn until she ventured into theater at Bryn Mawr. Acting offered a release, and an audience that applauded. Her father was right: she liked to show off.